#political documentaries

[freshfocusnews]

Someone suggested this documentary to me on Newsbreak. I would love to hear your opinions!

[marisatomay]

Been listening to books about the Salem witch trials and it’s so weird to me that there’s this prevailing narrative where people think of Salem as “oh they were deluded primitive folk who believed in witchcraft lol” when there are contemporary documents where prominent people said the accusers and the court (which hadn’t followed standard legal procedures even for that time) were committing crimes so grievous it would forever be a stain on New England

[spartakusbund]

I've not posted about it on here yet but this is a film I actually worked on. Description says it all, very proud with how it came out. The economic theory and storytelling is fantastic but my personal favourite thing about the film is the incredible work our editor did with old anti-fascist Soviet cartoons. There is a sequence in the middle of the film with these cartoons brought to life with new effects and new sounds that is truly terrifying to watch.

Prolekult are brand new to Tumblr, please do go give them a follow.

Decay: on fascism and breakdown is a feature length Marxist documentary looking at 20th Century fascism, early English settler colonialism in the Americas and the prospects of a contemporary neofascism. The film focuses on the political economy of these forms, drawing on Rajani Palme Dutt's view that fascism represented an organisation of capitalist decay, to illustrate the various different laws of motion which condition the development of reactionary political movements.

[handweavers]

i don't get the western obsessions with the kennedys, the titanic, and the british royal family like i feel absolutely nothing toward any of these things

[that-one-girls-blog-posts]

Nothing worse than getting into a new subject and having no one to discuss it with

[didnt-hear-idsb-live-again]

This isn’t a take about the discourse but more a take on the takes and that is: the fuckass director of that Miss Americana documentary pivoted the focus of the documentary to be political on her own, based on what she observed. Taylor said in interviews she didn’t know what the outcome was going to be. We know it was originally supposed to be a documentary about the fans, and that switch, made exclusively by that director without Taylor’s input, actually turned out to, in the long game, be the worst decision for Taylor’s career anyone has ever made.

[rueclfer]

well looks like im never leaving california! if any of u guys need reproductive healthcare i will house all of you im not even playing

[deadpresidents]

Did you watch the pbs documentary on the vice presidents yet and what did you think? And what vp that never became president do you think would have been best qualified to be president?

Yes, I was very much looking forward to PBS American Experience's "The American Vice President," and watched it as soon as it was released. I'm basically the target audience for documentaries like that, so I always appreciate and enjoy them. I will say that I thought that there were a lot of missed opportunities in it, however. I was really hoping that there would be some short biographical pieces on the various Vice Presidents, particularly many of the earlier VPs that nobody knows anything about. There are some really fascinating stories that could have been told about them, so I was a little bummed we didn't get that.

For the most part, the episode focused on the idea of the Vice Presidency as opposed to individual Vice Presidents. And it spent a lot of time on succession and the 25th Amendment. Now, that is no surprise -- that's basically the reason the Vice President exists in the first place. But at times it felt more like a documentary on continuity of government than the Vice Presidency, and I just wish there would have been more time spent on the personalities who have served in the position over the past 235 years.

As for the second part of your question, I'm going to do what the documentary largely did and answer based on the Vice Presidents since World War II. Once the nuclear age was upon us, the Vice Presidency became a more important role for those continuity of government reasons, and the quality and experience of most Vice Presidential candidates has improved during that time because it was more necessary to choose a running mate who was capable of actually taking over as President than balancing the ticket regionally or ideologically.

Since World War II, I think the Vice President who was best equipped to become President but never did was obviously Al Gore. I have always been shocked that Gore never made another run for the White House after 2000, but I also imagine that it must be an absolutely soul-crushing experience to run for President, seemingly win (and definitely win the popular vote), only to have the Presidency awarded to your opponent by a party-line decision of the United States Supreme Court.

Another post-World War II VP who never became President in his own right but probably would have been good in the job was Nelson Rockefeller. Because of the circumstances and brevity of his time as Vice President, Rockefeller is often forgotten about, but he was considered a real contender for the Presidency on numerous occasions before he was appointed to fill the Vice Presidential vacancy created when Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon in the White House after Nixon resigned. Rockefeller won four elections as Governor of New York, all by comfortable margins, and he never achieved his Presidential goal because the timing was just never right for him. His best bet as a Presidential candidate should have been 1964 or 1968, but after JFK's assassination, few Republicans wanted to run against LBJ less than a year later (and with good reason, LBJ's popular vote landslide was huge). And by the time the 1968 election rolled around it became clear that Richard Nixon had spent his years in political exile following his humiliating loss in the 1962 California Gubernatorial race building a powerful campaign machine that helped sweep him into office. But when it comes to experience, few VPs were better qualified than Vice President Rockefeller.

If you haven't seen "The American Vice President" from PBS's American Experience, I would definitely recommend checking it out. You can watch it (and many of American Experience's other excellent documentaries) on the PBS website. It's also currently available to watch for free via the PBS feed on YouTube.

[thesamoanqueen]

As I thought it was a waste of time. That documentary has practically zero content of the champs at the time, it's a planned interview for Ken and Hunter, with an exaggerated display of The Rock and bullshit told so to give a sense to something that still doesn't have sense and won't have it never because it was changed on the run after the cries of a cult of psychopaths.

[ophilosoraptoro]

CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE [Banned Discovery Channel Documentary]

Before Epstein, there was Boys Town.

This documentary was pulled just before its broadcast date, in 1994. It was never aired.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

A documentary about Reagan is going to come out and reveal him to have cheated on Nancy with Nixon.

[drsonnet]

Campus in Crisis! by Eli Valley

May 3, 2024

[locke-esque-monster]

Years ago I watched CNN's 2 documentaries on 1968 (both the original one as part of the 60s documentary and the separate 4 part series). And as fascinated as I was by the pure insanity of that year, it seemed awfully familiar a few years later when 2020 rolled around. Because both years were particularly tumultuous years in the US, both inside and outside the presidential election.

Well, here it is, July of 2024 and we've already had an assassination attempt on a candidate, the Republican candidate who has a previous failed presidential run, the sitting Democratic president dropping out of the race late in the game after strong public cries for another option, the same former candidate endorsing his vice president, the vice president being already tied to the president's unpopular policies, and an upcoming DNC where no one knows what's going to happen.

Like I know the expression "history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes". But this feels a little like a song remix that's essentially the same song with some new beats and a different bridge and I'm too old and jaded to pay for a cheap knockoff of a song I already heard.

It's both like we're living in unprecedented times and also like I've seen this movie before. And I feel like I can't look away because I'm so invested and I'm simultaneously exhausted at the same time.

[urban-lad]

𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐩 2010

[pineconecowgirl]

If you, like me, wish we spent more time talking about the women of the civil rights movement, here’s a really big moment that often goes unsung: the 1969 Charleston Hospital Strike. 

Protesting discriminatory treatment, the unjust termination of 12 employees, and abysmal wages, more than 60 hospital workers, all Black, most women, went on strike for 2 months. The demonstrations they staged provoked a response of over 1,000 state troopers and members of the national guard. The movement was notably supported by Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., pictured above (front center).

The investigation of the hospital that followed found 37 instances of civil rights violation, and when the state was threatened with a $12 million cut in federal funds, they yielded, rehiring the 12 employees who had been fired and agreeing to a pay increase. 

One of the participants in the demonstrations, Madeline Anderson, since inducted to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, made a phenomenal 30 minute documentary called “I am Somebody”. If you can find it, watch it. I was able to find a DVD at my local public library. If you’re interested in reading what I had to say about the movie, you can read my letterboxd review here.

[lenbryant]

Filmmaker Ken Burns urges Brandeis grads to choose democracy and not the cultish authoritarianism that’s threatening us in November.